When it comes to office space in San Francisco, it pays to be old-fashioned.

That is what law firm Bunsow De Mory recently found out. While every hot tech company in town is on the prowl for office environments that are creative, funky and open, Bunsow De Mory had a completely different approach. They liked private offices. They liked wood paneling. They didn’t care about concrete floors, exposed brick or blown-out ceilings.

At 351 California St., the firm’s partners found what they were after, according to Michael Tobin of Kidder Mathews, who represented the tenant. Bunsow De Mory leased just under 8,000 square feet on the building’s second floor — close enough to the street to hear the cable car bells rattling along California Street.

The intellectual property litigation firm, which was started by former partners from Dewey & LeBoeuf, had been at 55 Francisco St. in more of a campus setting and wanted to move back to the heart of the financial district. While Tobin declined to comment on the rent, he said it was in the mid $30s — a bargain in a city where average rents are $50 a square foot.

“What they really wanted was old San Francisco and this was as old San Francisco as it gets,” said Tobin. “They saw the big private offices and wainscoting and said, hey, this is us.”